To view prices and purchase online, please login or create an account now.



Water, Leisure and Culture: European Historical Perspectives

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Water, Leisure and Culture: European Historical Perspectives
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Bruce Tabb
Edited by Susan C. Anderson
SeriesLeisure, Consumption and Culture
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:256
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreWater sports and recreations
ISBN/Barcode 9781859735404
ClassificationsDewey:306.4812094
Audience
General
Illustrations 30 bw illus

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Berg Publishers
Publication Date 1 September 2002
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Dancing on the beach after a swim in the Mediterranean, taking the waters in fashionable Baden-Baden, boating on the Black Sea - the myriad uses of water imply that the term itself possesses multiple meanings. Focusing on Europe, this book addresses how using water for relaxation intersects with ideas about class, gender, nationality, and consumption. It also explores the ways Europeans have turned to water for pleasure, relaxation, and profit over the last two hundred years as the enjoyment of free time developed from a privilege into a right. Contributors capture key moments of social and cultural transition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- moments during which new social distinctions emerged, debates about nationalism and cosmopolitanism flourished, concepts of hygiene became politicized, and attitudes about travel and vacationing developed. What kinds of relationships exist between recreational uses of water and cultural, social, or political practices? How have such relationships found representation in art, landscaping, or architecture? Who visits water resorts or beaches and what role have these places played in the emergence of collective identities or in lending authority to social distinctions? How does the organization of leisure activities around water reflect ideas about purity and pollution, in a moral, social, or physical sense? This exciting venture into 'uncharted waters' will fascinate historians, geographers and anyone with a keen interest in European cultural studies, art and landscape.

Author Biography

Susan C. Anderson, Associate Professor, University of Oregon Bruce Tabb, Associate Professor, University of Oregon

Reviews

'This book reveals many fascinating historical perspectives It represents important reading in capturing and understanding the characteristics of past and present-day tourism.' Tourism 'this splendid collection of sixteen essays is extraordinarily broad...a refreshing contrast to the Anglo-centric nature of so much writing on tourism and leisure' International Journal of Maritime History